Impetuous, easy-going and very enjoyable spy picture

Not only did "Across the Pacific" add some brightness to Bogart's
rising stature as an actor, it more than justified the promise shown by
director John Huston after his success with "The Maltese Falcon."

The story begins on November 17, 1941. Lt. Rick Leland (Humphrey
Bogart) is being cashiered from the Army at Governor's Island, New
York The reasons are vague, but before five minutes have passed, Bogie
is decked out in his familiar trenchcoat Leland tries to enlist in the
Canadian army, but his disgrace is so widespread that they won't have
him Wondering aloud if perhaps the Japanese will take him on, Leland
buys a ticket on the 'Genoa Maru' bound for Yokohama via the Panama
Canal On board the freighter, Leland meets Alberta Marlow (Mary
Astor), who lies about her past, and Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), a
sociologist with an undisguised affinity for all things Japanese

It's really not spoiling anything to reveal that Leland is engaged in
counterespionage because neither Huston nor the screenwriters take the
material very seriously For most of the film, they're more interested
in the cutesy shipboard romance between Leland and Albertagetting
seasick, drunk, sunburned

As a thriller, the film doesn't really get wound up until the third
act, when it has a few fine moments, most memorably a long chase scene
in a Spanish-language movie theater, and a conventional conclusion

Sydney Greenstreet was excellent as a jovial yet cunning Japanese
sympathizer and Mary Astor played a doubtful role with the same mental
adroitness she had displayed in "The Maltese Falcon."

Bogart, of course, carried the story line here and it was a delight to
watch his enigmatic character change from one of calculated
indifference to that of relentless determination...

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25 out of 34 people found the following review useful:

A Strange Title Since It's Set In The Atlantic, But A Nice Spy Caper

A good spy caper starring Humphrey Bogart as Rick Leland, a court-martialled
US Army officer who finds himself in the middle of a nifty little bit of
espionage work on board a Japanese freighter bound from Halifax to Yokohama
via the Panama Canal just before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Surrounded by
a rather suspicious group of characters, from his love interest Alberta
Marlow (Mary Astor) to Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), Leland slowly
uncovers a Japanese plot to attack the Canal Zone (presumably also on
December 7) and sets himself to preventing it.

This was a good performance by Bogart, along with good performances from
Astor and Greenstreet. (For those not entirely familiar with Canadian
geography, by the way, the pun is that Alberta claims to be from Medicine
Hat, which is a small city in Alberta - almost TOO cute!) There's a fair
amount of tension throughout as we struggle along with Leland to figure out
exactly what's going on, and a nice climax as Leland foils the Japanese plan
(Bogey had to win!)

A couple of things I thought were worth noting, though. First of all, what's
with the title? All the action in the movie takes place either on the
Japanese freighter as it travels south down the ATLANTIC coast of North
America or in the Panama Canal Zone (with some minor scenes in Halifax,
where Leland is rejected by the Canadian Army, and in New York City, where
he snoops for information.) The only Pacific connection to the movie is that
the freighter was Japanese. And remember, of course, that this was made in
1942 (after Pearl Harbour.) The depiction of the Japanese isn't especially
flattering (although I thought it was more a play on stereotypes than openly
antagonistic), and the closing shot of the film is the wartime requisite
showing off of American military strength.

All in all, though, I enjoyed this movie immensely, and would highly
recommend it.

8/10

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28 out of 40 people found the following review useful:

Maltese Albatross

This film is okay -- watchable and even interesting -- but one can't
help comparing it to "The Maltese Falcon" which appeared the previous
year. Same principle actors -- Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet
-- no Peter Lorre fondling the handle of his cane, alas, and no gunsel
-- and, for the most part, the same Director, John Huston. Huston was
called up for Signal Corps duty halfway through filming and as a gag
shot the scenes up to the point at which Bogart was strapped helplessly
into a chair and surrounded by armed guards, a situation seemingly
without the possibility of escape. Then Huston cheerfully said goodbye
and walked off the set, leaving his replacement, Vincent Sherman, to
try to figure out how to get Bogart free.

It may be unfair to compare "Across the Pacific" to a lucky shot like
"The Maltese Falcon," but this film invites the comparison. Not just
the same performers but similar lines -- "You're good, Angel, very,
very good." But in Falcon the actors fit their fictional characters
like enzymes accommodating themselves to a substrate. Here they are
just actors playing familiar roles: the obese villain, the officer
who's dishonorable discharge is faked so he can go undercover (Gary
Cooper could have done as well, and in fact DID in a later movie), the
innocent woman made to look bad because the enemy has imprisoned her
dissolute father. The Japanese are all plain-vanilla bad guys, even the
familiar young one who makes amusing wisecracks in American slang. And
all the Japanese have real names like Tong, Chan, Loo, Fong, and Ahn.
(To be fair, the last one is Korean, not Chinese.)

If the characters are not nearly as much fun to watch as in "The
Maltese Falcon," the plot is no more than a simple war-time mystery
involving secret information that the Japanese want to use to start the
war by torpedoing the locks of the Panama Canal. Actually, the Japanese
did develop such plans later in the war. They intended to deliver a
handful of torpedo planes to the vicinity of the Canal in huge
submarines, which were available. The planes were not, and the plans
folded when the war ended.

In the movie, the characters move from New York to Canada, then board a
Japanese steamer, back to New York, then to Panama, where they
disembark. They travel from the Atlantic side of the canal to the
Pacific -- but they never make it across the Pacific.

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23 out of 31 people found the following review useful:

Adventure+Astor+Bogart+John Huston=Entertainment

John Huston's second film reunited three of his key actors from The Maltese
Falcon(1941). This war time thriller takes place before the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor. Across the Pacific(1942) is about a disgraced solider who
tries to redeem himself by acting as a spy for the US government. Humphrey
Bogart plays the American spy, Rick Leland in his most cool and suave
performance. Leland's mission is to prevent the Japanese from bombing the
Panama Canal.

Sydney Greenstreet as Dr. Lorenz gives a performance that's absolutely
sinister. He would have made a perfect James Bond Villain had he lived
during the 1950's. Across the Pacific(1942) is an entertaining motion
picture that realisticly parallels the war that was occuring in the Pacific.
Mary Astor is ravishing as the mysterious Alberta. Only the majority of
the movie was completed for John Huston went off to join the war
effort(another filmmaker involved with the film named Vincent Sherman ended
up filming the final scenes).

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20 out of 30 people found the following review useful:

A fine, but very flawed, definition of 40's Pulp

This serves as a nice companion piece to "The Maltese Falcon", but
DON'T compare it the masterpiece or you won't enjoy it. Also, keep in
mind, this was during the beginning of WWII (obviously), so expect your
typical "all Japanese are evil" racial stereotypes. It is upsetting to
see that films like these just heightened the US's paranoia, driving us
to send everyone of Japanese descent to internment camps.

You're going to really enjoy this film if you've seen modern Pulp
adventures like the Indiana Jones trilogy or Sky Captain (though don't
expect to see ANY mystical/sci-fi elements involved). This has it all:
a hard-boiled hero, exotic locales, constant plot twists and turns,
colorful villains, and a mysterious woman.

Bogart, as (almost) always plays the same character he always plays.
but boy, does he fit in SO well into this film. Mary Astor, while not
the pretty face that she was built up to be here and in "The Maltese
Falcon", gives another great performance, and unlike Bogart, she was
always able to give characters in a similar vein (in this case, the
mysterious woman), each their own personalities. Her Alberta Marlow is
not at all like "schoolgirl" Brigid O'Shaughnessey, but (at least
openly) tougher, a perfect match with Bogart during their exchanges of
dialogue, while remaining to be extremely ambiguous, never making sure
whether or not she's an ally or a femme fatale. When all is revealed,
looking back on it things made perfect sense with her character's
attitude.

Sydney Greenstreet adds another great villain to his own rogues
gallery. Here he's a man obsessed with Japanese culture and way of
life, so much that he has become apart of and accepted by "the enemy".
Victor Sen Young, who played a great shark grinned scumbag in "The
Letter", does good here, looking very happy that he at least was able
to speak coherently for once in a motion picture.

Huston's direction is really worth looking at, especially visually
stunning during a sequence at a movie theater. Without his obvious
presence and Bogart, this film would have just been another propaganda
story of espionage. Sadly, when he had to leave the film for war duty,
the final scenes were shot by otherwise competent (but nothing special)
director Vincent Sherman. The final 15 minutes seem extremely out of
place with the rest of the film, and its a shame Huston wasn't around a
little bit longer to round up what could have been a quintessential
piece of a feature 40's pulp movie.

Worth seeing, its a film that falls short of greatness, but man is it
entertaining.

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21 out of 33 people found the following review useful:

Surprisingly nifty little espionage tale

Not one of Bogart's best films, but still pretty darn entertaining. I
really love this movie and all its predictable twists and turns, its cheezey
jingoism and its racial and gender stereotyping. Even though there are
parts of this film that will probably be offensive to some of the more
delicate modern viewers, it is still a rousing tale of espionage, murder,
treason and heroism.

I have watched ATP several times, and have enjoyed it thoroughly each time,
looking past its warts and bumps to the heart of a fun pulp story acted out
by some of my favorite actors (Bogey, Astor and Greenstreet). The essential
plot, if I remember right, is that evil Japanese baddies want to blow up the
Panama canal (with Greenstreet's help of course) and Bogey has to stop them.
He meets a mysterious woman on a boat while supposedly going to work for
Chiang Kai Scheck in China (strange little point to make) and has all kinds
of strange encounters and adventures along the way, falling in love, saving
the day, and fighting those evil Japs...

By the way, the film actually does make a certain responsible choice to
demonstrate that not all Japanese people are bad guys. It is sort of a week
effort, but pretty surprising considering the mood in America when this film
was being made.

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11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:

Bogart plays secret agent

"Across the Pacific" is a fairly well done spy movie that takes place in
the
last days before America's entry into World War II.
Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) is cashiered from the U.S. Army for stealing
funds. The events that follow involve a love interest (Mary Astor) and an
enemy agent (Sydney Greenstreet) and a trip on a passenger ship from New
York to the Panama Canal. Humphrey Bogart as an American spy is
convincing
in a role that might have been played by Sean Connery 20 years later.

The subplot of a Japanese plot to torpedo the Panama Canal and put it out
of
action was a case of truth being stranger than fiction with the recent
revelation of Japanese submarines which carried planes designed to knock
the
canal out, but which were never used. "Across the Pacific" has humor,
action and romance and is one of Bogart's lesser known but very good
movies.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

A fellow with a suit like mine shouldn't go around kissing girls

Good WW2 spy movie with the three leads and director from The Maltese
Falcon. The plot is about Humphrey Bogart getting tangled up with
baddie Sydney Greenstreet and love interest Mary Astor. Greenstreet's a
Japanese sympathizer and is trying to recruit Bogie. Good luck with
that, Gutman. Bogart is excellent playing a character he was totally at
home playing: wisecracking tough guy ladies' man. Greenstreet is
villainous as ever and perfect at it. Just as in Maltese Falcon, Mary
Astor is playing a stunning beauty that makes heads turn. Just like in
Maltese Falcon, she doesn't match the character description. Perhaps
Huston had a bit of a crush. Otherwise I don't get her being cast in
these types of parts at a time when the likes of Ingrid Bergman and
Lana Turner were around. Still, despite that element of the casting
being off, Astor does fine.

This movie has an interesting backstory. It was originally to be about
a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but when that actually happened in
real life, they changed it to Panama. They never changed the title,
though, despite the movie taking place nowhere near the Pacific. Then
John Huston got called to serve before filming was complete so Vincent
Sherman had to step in. Oddly, it seems Huston was the only one who
knew how the movie was supposed to end so Sherman had to make up the
final fifteen minutes or so of the movie!

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:

Messy spy stuff underlined with patriotism...saved in the end by a jaunty Bogart performance

Richard Macaulay had to do some fast rewrites on this John
Huston-directed picture, based upon a magazine serial by Robert Carson.
When dishonorably discharged Army Officer Humphrey Bogart is revealed
to be a spy staking out a powerful Japanese sympathizer aboard a vessel
to the Orient, the portly commander was originally supposed to be
supervising the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When that occurred in
real-life while the picture was in production, Macaulay hurriedly
switched the locale to the Panama Canal (making the film's title
irrelevant). However, even if the story structure is patchy--and Mary
Astor's role as a plantation owner's daughter ultimately doesn't make
much sense--"Across the Pacific" has a dryly joshing quality about it,
and the end results are pleasant if unremarkable. Bogart (playing
'Rick', sometimes 'Ricky') is in jovial spirits throughout, especially
when comparing gun sizes with Sydney Greenstreet (never better) or
fingering Astor's back after she's acquired a sunburn; his blithe, easy
performance makes the film enjoyable. Astor (ostensibly the
love-interest) doesn't pour on the charm in her scenes with Bogie; she
plays it rather big-sisterly with him, a seen-it-all kind of gal, and
this works extremely well. The finale is a sign of the times--American
fighter planes fill the skies--but even this corny touch works a little
magic, despite the film's misshapen quality and sluggish beginning.
**1/2 from ****

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10 out of 17 people found the following review useful:

Bogie playing Bogie...only Peter Lorre is missing...

This is Humphrey Bogart the way his fans like him best--being pure Bogart
and relishing his role the way he did Sam Spade in THE MALTESE FALCON. He
has some crackling good dialogue to share with Mary Astor and Sydney
Greenstreet and director John Huston keeps things moving at a lively pace
with the usual amount of twists and turns.

Only problem is this is one of those espionage tales full of hidden
identities--a bit disconcerting considering how complicated the plot is. But
after awhile that doesn't matter. What counts here is the great chemistry
between Bogart and Astor, Bogart and Greenstreet, Bogart and Sen Young. In
short, it's Bogey doing what he does best--and Greenstreet as well--with
Bogart as the tough guy whose mission is to destroy a scheme by spies to
blow up the Panama Canal. All of the shipboard scenes are great fun and
played for comedy as well as drama. It has plenty of suspense along the way.
Sen Young is especially good in a colorful supporting role. It's slam bang
entertainment all the way.

Of course, at the end, Bogey single-handedly destroys the enemy and is free
to pursue the mysterious Mary Astor. At times it seems as though these are
characters left over from THE MALTESE FALCON with Astor again playing a
woman who just might be treacherous. The only ingredient missing among the
supporting cast is Peter Lorre.

For Bogart fans, this is a must see. John Huston had to leave toward the end
of the shooting to go into war service. Filming was completed by Victor
Sherman who took no credit for his work.